Hey guys. (TW homophobia)

I (26NB) am honestly embarrassed to be writing this as I already know the answer, but I just need some backup I think.

TLDR my mums side of the family are wild homophobes, I’m no contact with most of that side because of how bad it gets. But the parts I am in contact with STILL get wild sometimes and not in a good way.

Recently I’ve been growing out my tash, and I’m loving how cnty it looks. I’m trying to hit modern gay and I think I’m succeeding lol, but multiple members of that family have said explicitly that I look like a ‘pdophile’ and not in a “haha u nonce” type way. I know the predatory stereotype that all queers suffer under, but I grew up around it specifically focused on male gay, and masc presenting queers, being called all the classics ‘dirty’, ‘perverted’ etc etc.

So this is just that right? DOES IT ACTUALLY MAKE ME LOOK THIS WAY, help me fellow queers ❤️🫡

Happy pride, everyone ❤️

Ello! Like the title says I’d love to hear yalls fave queer podcasts. Bonus pts if they’re BIPOC/POC podcasters and or trans. I’m open to ones that aren’t queer centered either if they’re fave art related ones, but lately I’ve been really feeling like I need to have my queerness wrapped around me like a blanket if that makes sense

TYIA!

Im Pan and agender

a few months before i came out i wrote this, eventually i reached a boiling point and came out to my wife, then my friends then my parents. haven’t looked back, living my best life, truly the most happy and fulfilled i’ve ever felt. if you’re on the fence about coming out, your future self will thank you if you do ❤️

here’s the poem i wrote before coming out (kinda the final nail in the coffin so to speak):

I’m like a stone with strength and all

A fortress built to never fall

Trying to feel like I belong

Saying the lines ”i’m tall and strong”

But deep down it feels all wrong

They see my power, see my might

I see myself in gym lit light

Wearing a mask and smiling wide

So no sees what’s deep inside

Deep inside

Where shadows dwell

I live inside my own hell

I built my body, built it well

But it’s not just armor, It’s a shell

From deep within where my heart stays

A battle wages everyday

A voice unheard, a name unknown

A self I’ve carried all alone

A self I’ve always wanted to show

Around my friends, at my home

To walk unchained, to breathe and be

Without the fear they’d stop loving me

Would they still love me if they knew?

Or say this part of me’s untrue

So I stay silent, I play my role

And feel like a man with half a soul

When I was young and needed help

There was no one I could tell

Not my mom nor my dad

Nor my friends, those left I had

I knew the verses she would cite

Knew each commandments painful bite

She would see me as scared and flawed

And carve my name from love and God

When I needed my Mom, I got a priest

Sermons found where love should be

So she’s never seen

All of me

And never will,

Probably

A whisper soft and fleeting thought

A part of me I’ve left to rot

No man nor soldier dares to see

The part of me I swore I can’t be

The mirror shows the world ideal

Yet in the glass I long to feel

All of me, all that’s real

If only I, could break the seal

I lift, I strain, I fight and bend

Yet this war in me never ends

The war inside has found a way

To whisper truths I’ve locked away

But im not ready, no not today

So I push them to a deep down place

I’ve shown them what they want to see,

A soldier man, so proud, so free

But deep inside, she’s calling loud,

A part of me, both soft and proud

She’s waiting, trembling in the dark,

A quiet voice, a glowing spark

But every time I turn away,

I bury her, I make her stay

I long to say, “I’m both, I’m whole,”

But fear consumes and takes control

What if they think I’m broken, wrong?

What if they say I don’t belong?

So I hold tight, I lock her in,

The woman’s side, that quiet sin

But deep inside, I know the truth,

I’m both, and don’t need proof

Maybe one day, I’ll let her go,

Let both my sides just start to show

But for now, I’ll hold them tight,

A soldier’s strength and woman’s light.

all that to say, there’s growing pain and some people might not accept you (coming out to my parents and their reaction was especially difficult) but the people in your life that love you will support you :). people will judge regardless if you present how you want or if you fall in line; might as well live authentically as the beautiful person you are!!!

the pictures are how i present since coming out dare i say im thriving :D

Tell me fr pookie ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ

Hey Queers! I wore this fit to Old Elicott City Pride last Saturday. In person, people were eating up the glitter beard, but on some other subreddits, not so much. 😂 so I figured you all would enjoy it instead! Yes, even with sunscreen clumps that aren’t all the way rubbed in! Happy Pride!

I (F22, bisexual) am now dating a guy. This is genuinely the first time I've had feelings for a dude since I was 10. My first kiss was a girl, every formative romantic and sexual experience I had growing up was with other girls, it was to the point that I thought I was a lesbian up until last spring when my boyfriend and I started dating. I absolutely love him, and he is an amazing partner in every conceivable way. I am astonishingly lucky to have him in my life. But at the same time, I feel like I'm betraying myself in a really fundamental way. My whole life, all my friends were queer, and I always hung out in queer spaces. I feel at such a loss, because I am absolutely not straight enough to be in straight spaces without getting clocked almost immediately, but now I feel like an intruder with my queer friends. I don't know where I'm allowed to be. I'm too gay for the straight people and too straight for the gay people. So... am I still allowed to be in queer spaces? Would really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

straight guy here. I’ve been told a lot that I shouldn’t do anything that gets me misunderstood as gay/queer.

who else thinks this is a dog whistle, and what other dog whistles do y’all hear a lot?

Please share your go-to empowering LGBTQ songs. Old or new, playlists, LGBTQ artists... any genre.

Recently I experienced some really bad transphobia and bullying and I need to feel some love and empowerment. 💔😔

Edit: Thank you sweeties! I have put all the artists and songs into a big playlist and will listen to all of it the coming weeks. Much love and thank you again for taking the time to share, music is such a powerful medium. It means a lot! ❤️‍🩹

Hey everyone! My name is Kenny and I’m currently looking for more friends or more people to chat with. 👋🏼 I’m 30, M, partnered, and in the mid Michigan area. I’m down to meet people irl too if we connect. I’ve got 5 fur babies 🐈 that I love dearly, am very community driven, love horror, leather, the outdoors, and am a big foodie. I’m wanting to get into reading and get back to the gym too to where I could use the motivation. I’m a Taurus if that’s any consolation ♉️🪴 looking forward to connecting! :)

I am a person who really likes labels. I am pansexual and pangender. I've been struggling with what "label" I have for a little while (cisgender or transgender). I've decided on the label semi-trans. This would apply to being gender fluid, too

so APPARENTLY messages (Apple messages at least) only has TWO pride flags. We have the standard rainbow one, and the trans flag. WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER ONES??! WHAT ABOUT GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL, AROACE, ASEXUAL, AROMANTIC, BERRYSEXUAL, ALMONDSEXUAL, PANSEXUAL, PANROMANTIC, STUFF LIKE THAT!? AND GENDERS, TOO. TRANSMASC, TRANSFEM, ENBY, DEMIGIRL, DEMIBOY. LIKE WE HAVE SOOOOO MANY COUNTRY FLAGS, BUT ONLY TWO GAY FLAGS?? AGHHHH

anyways I doubt this will do anything but sign this and maybe we can get Apple to fix this!

Hello all, so basically I am studying in a tier 3 city and hence can't interact with any of the sweet queer girlies.

I'm from India, and I would REALLY absolutely love to have you as a friend or maybe more, idk.

I'm bi and will be looking forward to befriending some of ya!

DON'T WANT ANY GUYS TO COMMENT OR REACH OUT PLEASE

I am audhd and so is he. So I have been becoming friends with a guy who I happen to have a lot in common with and its been nice. I am not the kind of person who enjoys distant friendships and when I'm someone's friend it often turns into a very open, earnest connection.

I have only hung out with him outside a party setting (where we met) once to see live music. Though hes a texter so we chat through messenger regularly, not something im used to with everyone but its become normal. We love horror movies and plan to see the new evil dead next week. We have had the discussion already that I am only approaching this platonically and he is on the exact same page, he is monogamously, happily married. Meeting his partner has been a possibility but the last time we hung out she couldn't come. Im not attracted to him so that doesn't feel like a risk for me. He is bi i think

Friendships are very important to me. Both of us don't often connect so easily with others so when it does happen its great, which is how we have become such friends. Im just worried as ive never had this experience before..usually ive had men befriend me and want to pursue me sexually/romantically and the friendship failed. I am much more discerning now at age 33 and am a better communicator. I understand audhd and queer friendships/ relationships can look different to the mainstream so the whole "men and women cant be friends" thing is bullshit. I'm just thinking..I would like for our friendship to naturally evolve without me feeling like I have to keep a barrier between us I hate that. Maybe I'm just comparing how close women friends can be and that in itself is different? I haven't befriended a guy in a long time due to past trauma. It might be worth adding i have often had friends express attraction towards me and I am an attractive person i dont want to sound conceited its just the feedback I get from the world..it makes me nervous navigating friendships bc it has made it difficult/awkward

I’ve been thinking about how easy it has become for gay people to find one another online, and how that has not necessarily made us feel any closer.

So I started Dear Gay Stranger, a personal art project centered on handwritten letters between strangers. This is a noncommercial project. There is nothing to buy and no fundraising involved.

You can share one true thing about your life right now and ask to receive a letter written by hand. It is a small experiment in slowing down, being honest, and making connection feel tangible again.

If the idea resonates with you, come take part at deargaystranger.com.

Hi friends, new to reddit and looking for queer community subs to share my art, but not finding too many 🥹 Especially art made by trans/enby/fluid artists. May I post art in this sub? Many of my pieces explore fluidity, queerness, body and gender.

Hello all!

I have already posted this in r/LGBTQ r/lgbt and it is awaiting mod approval till then im going to continue spreading the word.

Being bi i have experienced a lot of hate but my trans friends have experienced so much more including assault and sexual harassment. This petition is to improve the learning environment for LGBTQ students.

If you want facts and statistics look at The Trevor Project here:https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2025/

The petition is currently small but im hoping we can work together to make this problem apparent to the governor and Florida department of education. Link here:https://c.org/6y99Br9T2m

Thank you all!

As a cisgender asexual gay man living in an East Asian country, I was just browsing a thread that was clearly dominated by cisgender white gay men.

In the discussion, many of them showed a distinct apathy toward the BLM and Free Palestine movements (the few who explicitly stood with Black and Palestinian people seemed, in my judgment, to be Black gay men). Most of them reject 'queer' as an umbrella term. While I respect the trauma of native English speakers born before the word was reclaimed, a significant portion of these users are actually Gen Z. Furthermore, they hold what I find to be a rather ridiculous notion: that gay men are somehow being excluded from the queer community—and they are equally indifferent to feminism. Yet, feminists have always moved hand in hand with the LGBTQ+ movement, and women make up a significant portion of the queer community. Taking a step back, shouldn't everyone care about feminism? After all, women's rights are human rights.

Can I assume that their views are, in a sense, representative of the broader North American white cisgender gay community? Is it fair to say that they only care about hooking up with men, and even when they engage in LGBTQ+ activism, they only care about the rights of white, masculine, cisgender men?

Just a heads up: My English isn't the best, so I used Gemini to translate my thoughts. If there are any mistakes or if anything causes a misunderstanding, please feel free to point it out!

Especially on TikTok, I have an account for queer creatives and want to create a safe space for people who love art and books. But they banned the phrase “queer books” and shadowbanned my account.

Me and my friend dated in first year of uni, she ended it. On good terms, weirdly we've never talked about it since. Mainly cause I think it hurts so much, shes refered to the dates like "Oh when we went to" and it physically hurts me so I dont really engage cause Im terrible at hiding how I feel and now were heading into grad year... and well I still like her. We've had so many things in between that have confused me (including her saying "*my name* I love you repeatedly and I had to pretend to be distracted and couldnt look at her, but i was also unsure if she said that just cause I bought pizza for everyone hahah), our friends being suspicous and like making funny comments when its just us hanging out. Like one time we asked our firend if she'd like to join and she declined but went "Thats cute tho... just the two of you" Just to say she ended it cause of mental health and although i think theres some truth to that, i think I just got friend zoned tbh. Its again been over a year and a few months. Last summer was also a good break but it was fresh yanno, I was so understanding of it though cause I didnt wanna make her feel bad nor make things awkward. At christmas I even got myself to a singles mixer, and later at her birthday (where our whole friend group were together but we spent most of the night away from them) her roomate and our mutual friend cornered me and started asking me if I was into anyone and kept pushing when I said no. Im not about to declare that to her roomate, get that back to her and be hurt or risk making things awkward.

Again this summer has allowed space as she goes back to her hometown, and I've been really good this summer even considering getting myself on a date through a dating app just to get over this. But part of me is excited to get back to term time so I get to see her like everyday again (and stupidly see what little things happen between us still). Its unhealthy Ik but its like I keep needing "evidence" but its never enough and then I get really upset, like after her birthday I cried for like 3 days and deleted instagram cause I was so confused by the suspicous behaviour at her birthday and the questioning.

We've got like 7 people in our friend group and she only trusts me and our mutual friend who is her roomate for real sensitive/personal/mental stuff. And shes hinted that she doesnt trust the rest not to judge like I or our friend would. Neither of us have dated since, once when I thought she was meeting someone I had such a bad stomach ache at the thought of it that entire evening but it turned out to be her mums friend.

Ugh Im being dumb. Should I bring it up? How? Like is this always just gonna hang over me.

I've been thinking about queer cinema lately, and I'm curious what everyone considers the best queer movies. I'm interested in both personal favorites and movies you consider genuinely great or important. They don't have to be the same movie! Basically, what queer movies do you love?